A good outing to the Lang Toon

Seven Harriers enjoyed a great run at the Lang Toon 10k last night, on a beautiful warm evening. They managed a collectively strong performance and the club picked up a string of prizes.

Ian Beattie - 2nd overall and 1st male vet

Simon Wake - 3rd overall and 2nd male vet

Ben Wake - first Junior

Gordon Morrison - 3rd senior vet.

Phil T was 5th overall, close behind Simon, so the club achieved 2nd, 3rd, 5th vs Perth Road Runners 1st, 4th, 6th.

We await official times and placings from the race organiser, but Harriers finishing order and (where known) unofficial times are Ian 38.36, Simon 39 ish, Phil T 39.11, Ben 43.30 ish, Gordon 44.33, Rob and Beth.

The winning time was 35.22, so points are in prospect when the official times are known!

Thanks also to Pete Gaylor and Adrian Wake for support and photos.

EXTRA: more photos here

Club Championship Update 4/6/07

Men:
1. Gordon Morrison (3 races) 36.1 points
2. Ian Beattie (3) 36.0*
3. Adrian Wake (3) 35.6
4. Peter Gaylor (3) 27.1
5. Phil Mestecky (2) 25.8
6=. Ben Wake (2) 25.0
6=. Digby Sym (2) 25.0
8. Allan Mooney**(1) 12.8
9. Doug Flint (1) 12.2
10. Victor Johnstone (1) 10.1
11. Eric Sidebottom (1) 9.6
12. Phil Tipping (1) 7.6*
13. Simon Wake (1) 6.0
14. Phil Pass (1) 4.3

* Includes Highland Fling as a Long category C Hill Race (53miles, 7000ft).
**Allan's total includes a "joker" race local to him (Dick Wedlock 10k).
***As Ben is U17 his points have been multiplied by 1.45.

Women:
1. Ali Manners (3) 26.8
2. Liz Mestecky (2) 20.9
3. Cathy Tilbrook (1) 10.7
4. Shelagh Crighton (1) 9.8
5. Karen Pass (1) 9.0

Next race is the Lang Toon (Auchterarder) 10K on Wednesday 6th June 7.30pm.

More Harriers in Action

On a cool and blustery day last weekend (May 27th), three Harriers joined the masses assembled in Edinburgh for the Marathon. First to finish was Karen Pass in a time of 3.55.46 and 51st in her age group. I think that Vic Johnstone finished in under 4 hours though I'm not certain in what time as his chip fell off along the way (if anyone knows his time, please let me know) and Phil Pass finished in 4.50.58. Other local runners in the race well known to the Harriers included John Pritchard (3.45.32) and Duncan King (3.37.43).

On Saturday 2nd June, Rob Bolton took part in the Strathallan 5 organized by Carnegie Harriers. Rob fininshed in 79th place in a time of 42.35. Kate McKinnon, nee Bolton, from the host club, came home in an excellent time of 31.19 and picked up the prize for first woman in the race and, rumour has it, a course record - clearly demonstrating that running genes, like red hair, can be regressive!

Also, well done to Colin Glencorse in the Glas Tulaichean Uphill race. Colin finished well up the field in 14th place in a time of 42.28.

Finally, Allan Mooney, resplendent in his new Harriers vest (see photos above), came close to breaking the 40 min barrier at the Carluke 10K on Sunday. Despite missing out on this goal, he took 2 minutes off his time and now plans to set his sights on the St Andrews Hospice 10K in September.

Extra: Allan finished a very creditable 19th in the Carluke 10k - full results are at http://www.carluketrust.org.uk/2007_10k_race_results.pdf

New Club Run on Thursdays

From the results of the questionnaire which most harriers completed a month or two ago, it is clear that a fair number of us struggle to get to Crieff on a Wednesday by 6pm. It seems that for some there is a preference for Comrie and for others it is more to do with the problem of getting back from work in time.

So, for a trial period in June, we have decided to try a Thursday run at 7.00pm in Comrie beginning Thursday, 7th June. The trial will run for 4 weeks so, depending on the take-up, the last one will be Thursday 28th June.

This will be in addition to the usual runs:

- Monday 9.15am Macrosty Park
- Wednesday 6pm Macrosty Park
- Sunday 8.15am from either Crieff or Comrie (Comrie this Sunday)

The hope is that all of you that indicated that you wanted a later start time and/or a Comrie run will show their support for this new slot. If it turns out that there is not much support for this we will just scrap it and go back to the usual runs in July.

See you all there!

Other recent performances in May

Well done to David Adams and Rob Bolton who took part in the Auld Toun 10K (Dunfermline) on 9th May. David finished 169th out of 334 in 47.18 and Rob not far behind in 53.26. Results.

Then, on Sunday 20th on a windswept Goat Fell, Colin Glencorse took on the cream of Scottish Hill Running in the ScottishAthletics Championship Race. He finished well up the field as usual in an excellent 34th place out of 129 in a time of 1.18.49. Results. Photo courtesy of arran online.

With this performance Colin moves into 8th place in the club championship with 13.0 points from just one scoring race so far.

Club Championship Update

Following the third designated race in the series the league tables look like this:

Men:
1. Gordon Morrison (3 races) 36.1 points
2. Ian Beattie (3) 36.0*
3. Adrian Wake (3) 35.6
4. Peter Gaylor (3) 27.1
5. Phil Mestecky (2) 25.8
6=. Ben Wake (2) 25.0
6=. Digby Sym (2) 25.0
8. Allan Mooney**(1) 12.8
9. Doug Flint (1) 12.2
10. Victor Johnstone (1) 10.1
11. Eric Sidebottom (1) 9.6
12. Phil Tipping (1) 7.6*
13. Simon Wake (1) 6.0

* Includes Highland Fling as a Long category C Hill Race (53miles, 7000ft).
**Allan's total includes a "joker" race local to him (Dick Wedlock 10k).
***As Ben is U17 his points have been multiplied by 1.45.

Women:

1. Ali Manners (3) 26.8
2. Liz Mestecky (2) 20.9
3. Cathy Tilbrook (1) 10.7
4. Shelagh Crighton (1) 9.8

Next race is the Lang Toon (Auchterarder) 10K on Thursday 7th June.

CHANGE: PLEASE NOTE LANG TOON IS ON WEDNESDAY 6TH @7.30

Knock knock...

Who was there? 11 of us at this years Knock Hill Race with some excellent performances and a trio of prizes to boot.

A smaller than usual field of only 45 runners showed up with the Champions League Final and an accident on the A85 near Perth perhaps explaining the low numbers.

However, Harriers were out in force led home in an excellent 4th place by Digby Sym who picked up the prize for 2nd Vet. Other notable performances came from Ben Wake who finished in 15th place and was the 1st Junior. First local woman prize went to Liz Mestecky in a PB of 42.36 and well done to Cathy Tilbrook who took fully 6 minutes off her previous time for the race set in 2004. Credit too to Ali Manners who continues to show good form finishing in 44.18.

Full list of Harriers is as follows:

4th Digby Sym 33.06
11th Phil Mestecky 35.30
15th Ben Wake 36.36
17th Ian Beattie 36.54
26th Adrian Wake 39.01
29th Gordon Morrison 39.51
32nd Peter Gaylor 41.46
34th Liz Mestecky 42.36
36th Cathy Tilbrook 43.18
39th Ali Manners 44.18
40th Shelagh Crighton 45.06

Now to work out what this does to the Club Championship!